2016 is proving to be a seminal year for many in the USA. Our blog reached a million page views, a huge milestone for us. We have seen a sea change in what can happen during an election campaign. We have evolved as a people and as a nation. We, as a company, love writing evergreen articles (ones based on principles) where our readers keep coming back for more. Your readership provides a vote on what types of articles we write. Our taste for all things Internet are changing, the hacker community is relentless in their pursuit of our information and money, the social media giants continue to experiment with their officering’s as we the consumer try to keep a handle on how to use their platforms. Our technological world keeps evolving before our eyes and our articles will continue to help keep you informed. In this week’s episode of Working the Web to Win, we will look back at 2016, covering our best and most read articles and listened to shows. We will do this in a way that will give the reader an insight into our marketing method, some of the ways we measure success and a way to look at blogging that produces great results. So, read on, tune in and turn on to this week’s show as we look at the best of Working the Web in 2016.
So, in January, of 2016, the presidential race was just getting started so we wrote an article
called “What do Presidential Candidates Know About Working the Web?”. It discussed how presidential candidates had evolved from just using conventional media to using the web. It’s interesting that a December 31 presidential poll published by Powdered Wig Society stated that, “The latest 2016 presidential poll has Donald Trump destroying Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup, 375 electoral votes to Hillary’s 163. We went on to say “That is an astonishing 70% to 30% difference, and is very good news if you are a Donald Trump supporter.” Considering that the majority of media outlets had Hillary winning the election by double digits most of the year. This early prediction proves that even if the liberal media blatantly lies, as they try to influence the electorate, that the American people are still independent thinkers. If you’re a blogger, make sure that your articles try and ride trend waves. Doing so can double, even triple your readership for that article. Who doesn’t want that?
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We had five article make a big splash this year with our readers. Four of these articles had more than 3000 page views, and my most recent prediction article hit four hundred page views in one week (almost 300 in the first hour), pushing our blog’s daily readership to almost 2000 page views. That’s almost double our daily average. The number one article of the year was Will You be Able to Stomach the Internet of Food? With 3,443 page views. It talked about how the food industry is jumping on the IoT bandwagon (internet of things). Next was What’s Up with Wi-Fi? Which discussed how Wi-Fi has evolved and showcased some of the innovations that are being introduced, some of which will take Wi-Fi speeds to a whole new level. Our third most read article talked about “How to Lose Weight and Keep it
Off in the 21st Century”. It provided information about the latest and greatest gadgets and weight loss techniques that are sweeping the nation. In particular, it showcased the NutriMost Weight Loss System, which provides a guarantee to lose 20 pounds or more in 40 days! Our fourth best performer was about the latest changes and upgrades taking place on the internet. “What’s Up with Web 3.0?”, discussed in detail many of the new capabilities, especially those having to do with A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). These four articles outperformed many of the others (some only by a few hundred page views), but many of the newer articles haven’t been out long enough to show that they are reader favorites as well. The coming year and time will tell us which articles have staying power.
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Now the diversity of the articles we write is because we have found that readers are a little more eclectic in their tastes. Too often, blog pundits try to pigeonhole readers into lovers of only one subject, as if most readers of the blogosphere only read one type of article or only care about one industry. We know that everyone has several things they are interested in. What’s cool about the internet is that it offers such a wide variety of subjects to choose from. We mainly write about Internet marketing, covering subjects like website design, SEO, Social Media marketing, blogging, Pay Per Click, A/B testing, email, digital PR, podcasting, and email marketing. However, we also love writing (and doing shows) about robotics, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and internet security. Many of these subjects have proven to be exactly what you as readers were looking for.
Watch the accompanying BTR show that goes with the blog.
Watch the accompanying BTR show that goes with the blog.
So, to illustrate how we fulfill this need, let’s look at several our top performers from a different perspective. We always ask the reader to plus (as in Google +) our article if they liked them. If one of our articles receives at least 10 G+’s, we consider it a winner. This year we had four articles that received 10 +’s, four with 11 +’s, five with 12 +’s, 1 with 13 +’s and the top performer with 15 +’s. Let’s look at the best of each of these categories.
Of the four articles with 10+’s the article that got the most reads was The State of Internet
Privacy & Security in America Today. This article was praised not only for the useful information it provided but also for the large number of links to other articles we have written on this subject over the years. The other three article in this category include: 7 Myths that Entrepreneurs Often Believe That Lead to Big Mistakes, The Planet of the Apps: The Good, The Bad, and The Funny and Telemedicine: Is there a doctor in your browser?
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Articles with 11+’s include: What do Presidential Candidates Know About Working the Web?, (am article we discussed earlier), plus Read any Good eBooks Lately?, about how the web has helped create several dozen eBook millionaires, Getting Faked Out On Facebook an article about how internet criminals are creating fake/copycat Facebook accounts to capture subscriber IDs and financial info. I even discussed how this happened to me in 2016. Our last 11+ candidate was- The Evolution of Touch Marketing in the 21St Century. This article covered how touch marketing has evolved and how any business can use it to generate leads and grow their sales.
In the 12/13+ category, we had six articles in all, (five 12’s and one 13). The top in this category with 13+’s was; “It's Midnight - Do You Know Where Your Data is?” A story about data security, best backup practices and how to deal with hackers and ransomware. Next
was a story about “The Three Phases of Successful Marketing.” It talks about what a business should be doing to ensure that their marketing produces a strong return on investment (ROI). This was followed by “The Changing Face of Online Video” (an article about how the video marketing arena is changing). Then by “The Attributes of a Successful Entrepreneur”, ( a well liked article about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur today) and then the “Top-10 Techno Turkeys 2016” (an article about the biggest mistakes of 2016) with the caboose in this category being an article about how to use a cloud-based calendar to make life easier (called “The Magic of Using a Cloud-Based Calendar”).
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If you want the reader to plus, comment and share your articles, ask them to do so. Always thank readers, reply to comments when asked and take the time to link your articles to other related stories. Provide your readers the highest quality you can provide and give them something more than other peoples stories and opinion. Go out on a limb and also give them your expertise as well. By adding value to your articles, you will build credibility and a loyal following. Now on to our top performer.
Our top plus performer was an article about blogging of all things (actually it makes sense to
me). This article had 15+’s and was well read even though it was published in mid-summer when lots of people are on vacation. The article's title is “To Autoblog, or Not to Autoblog?” That is the Question” written by Danny Murphy, our head ghostwriter. It talked about how many would-be bloggers are discovering that “Autoblogging” is really not blogging at all, and how there are negative consequences for using an autoblogging platform. I guess there really is no substitute for writing a unique and interesting article that readers actually want to read. It is now obvious that Google does not like fake blogging either, so if you really want to understand what works or doesn’t work in the blogosphere, check this article out.
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In this article, I have provided an overview of our best and most read, visited and listened to blogs and shows for 2016. The way these articles are presented is meant to give the reader an insight as to how to evaluate blogging/podcasting success in the 21st century. We implore you to go back and check out the insights and interesting subjects we published in 2016. After all, most are evergreen and don’t expire when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. Pass this article on to your friends so they can check us out by reading our audience’s favorite articles and topics. We thank you our readers and podcast listeners for patronage all year. Please share our blog with friends, family, and co-workers. On behalf of myself and my business partner Carl Weiss, thank you for your patronage. We really appreciate you helping us reach a million page views this year. Hope you had a Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year. Until next time.
That’s my opinion; I thank you and look forward to reading yours.
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Hector Cisneros is COO and Director of Social Media Marketing at Working the Web to Win, an award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville, Florida. He is also co-host of the weekly Internet radio show, "Working the Web to Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”
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